Mar 25, 2008 - 06:45 PM

By Kim Downey

DURHAM -- Local residents can expect to benefit from a provincial budget that includes millions in funding for transportation and infrastructure projects, and millions to retrain unemployed workers.
    
Finance Minister Dwight Duncan called the “centrepiece” of the budget the investment of $1.5 billion over three years in a Skills to Jobs Action Plan.
   
The plan will train unemployed workers for new careers, expand apprenticeships, build more spaces in colleges and universities, and help students with education costs.
   
Some 20,000 unemployed workers will get long-term training that launches them into new, well-paying careers through a $355-million Second Career Strategy, Mr. Duncan said.
   
An additional $750 million over four years in new business tax relief to lower costs for Ontario’s businesses was also highlighted in the budget speech at Queen’s Park in Toronto.
   
The finance minister also mentioned the need for the Province and federal government to work together, especially to help Ontario workers get their fair share of Employment Insurance benefits.
   
“We have a plan to cope with the challenges facing Ontario,” Mr. Duncan said. “But we could get better results, faster and in partnership with the federal government.”
   
But Oshawa Conservative MPP Jerry Ouellette said the Liberal budget falls short of addressing the needs of individuals and businesses.          “We lost 194,000 manufacturing jobs in Ontario and yet they announce a program to assist 20,000 individuals to retrain; what happens to the other 174,000 individuals?” Mr. Ouellette said in a telephone interview.
     
There has to be a plan to attract businesses and “I don’t see a plan here,” he said, adding more needed to be done to create an environment attractive to business retention. Manufacturing has been hit hard by the rising loonie and the weakened U.S. economy, he said.
   
Hopefully, Durham College and UOIT will lobby for a “fair share” of the funding to retrain people, Mr. Ouellette said.
   
Mr. Duncan said the budget will pour more than $82 million in transit improvements along the Hwy. 2 corridor, part of a multi-year $17-billion investment.
   
“It’s great that the Province recognizes how important transit is in Durham and they’re prepared to support us on this,” said Durham Region Chairman Roger Anderson. “It’s greatly appreciated.”
   
The money will mean that in the future, buses will run every 7 1/2 minutes along Hwy. 2. The Province is also funding more infrastructure improvements like roads and bridges and increasing spending on social housing, all issues that needed to be addressed, Mr. Anderson said.
   
“They have done an awful lot for municipalities,” he said. “There’s a lot of money on the table. There is an extra $400 million outside of Toronto and we in Durham will qualify for that.”
   
The Province is also boosting funding for job training, education, health care while balancing the budget.
   
The budget also makes significant investments in health care, education and infrastructure. But Bob Malcolmson, CEO of the Great Osahwa Chamber of Commerce, raised concerns about manufacturing and Hwy. 407 funding.
   
“The budget doesn’t go far enough to address the long-term impacts of the high Canadian dollar on core industries such as manufacturing and, in particular, the auto sector, which in the past has been the leading job and wealth creator in Ontario and Quebec,” Mr. Malcolmson said. ”That the Ontario government still has not addressed in the budget the funding of Hwy. 407 across Durham Region causes this chamber great concern.”

-- With files from Reka Szekely